I pulled on my Boston Marathon 100th running (1996) T-shirt to watch the Sun Run this year. It brought back so many memories of past Sun Runs, that epic Boston Marathon, and a one-time run in the Vancouver Marathon.
This week in the break between the Lower Mainland’s two biggest running events, there’s extra attention on them this year because of the horrific Boston bombing. The ugly insanity of the Boston tragedy is all the worse if you’ve ever been at the finish line of any of these races. There is no sweeter, happier place in the world than the line that ends the agony of the runners and uncorks the celebration of their families, friends and even unconnected onlookers.
Big runs are now part of Vancouver’s DNA, with the Sun Run’s 50,000-plus participants putting it in the top three in North America. The BMO Vancouver Marathon is the largest in Canada and a top 10 world destination marathon.
Still, recalling the 1996 Boston Marathon always reminds me how much bigger the Vancouver marathon and other races here could be, especially in a town so fixated on outdoor activity. Boston in a normal year attracts around 27,000 runners, with an estimated half a million people lining the route. The Vancouver run is capped at 5,000 for the marathon and 10,000 for the half-marathon. That’s 15,000, far behind 47,000 for the biggest (New York) and 36,000 for the second-biggest (Chicago).
The BMO Vancouver Marathon prefers to focus on quality over quantity.
“The board’s vision is to see this as a world-class event,” says executive director Charlene Krepiakevich. “I don’t think we’d ever aspire to be the size of Boston. World class is when you have spectators lining the streets from start to finish.” They definitely have that in Boston – and wait until next year.
In spite of their considerable operational costs and logistical challenges (Vancouver’s traffic plan is a 600-page document), these events are significant money-spinners for host cities. Vancouver’s organizers cite a $37 million economic spinoff from the 27,000 visiting spectators and runners who descended on the city for the 2012 marathon. Think of it as one of the biggest conventions the city hosts – coming back year after year.
Ironically, the Vancouver marathon has been struggling with the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre (VCEC) to be allowed to use the public space at the Jack Poole Plaza for the finish. They’re still stuck using an awkward street intersection until they agree to switch to an awkward Mother’s Day weekend that’s less likely to conflict with a convention at the VCEC. Only recently did the Vancouver Park Board agree to lift its limits on their use of the seawall. The city isn’t all that keen about these events, because none of the revenue generated comes to the city directly, but all the logistical nightmares and citizen complaints do.
The potential for more runs in a city as attractive as Vancouver hasn’t been lost on San Diego-based Competitor Group Inc., organizers of the Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon series in 29 cities in North America and Europe, including Montreal this fall. Expect an announcement next month about a new Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon in Vancouver in fall 2015. That’s bad news for Surrey, where the mayor’s office spent three years ramping up to its inaugural run last September with all of 285 marathoners showing up among its 2,200 runners.
As Surrey’s experience shows, the competition to attract participants to these events is fierce.
Also in the race are crazier, more crowd-pleasing events like the Tough Mudder series, returning to Whistler in August, backed by a company with $70 million in revenue. To make sure their finish line is a place of exuberance and joy, they hand out beer to finishers.
The pace is quickening, but it’s worth staying in this race. •
